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Storm Dennis takes its toll on associations and tenants
Housing associations in Wales and the West Midlands have spoken out about the disruption to tenants and staff from the devastating floods caused by Storm Dennis.
South Wales witnessed most of the damage from the storms at the weekend, the Welsh government estimates that around 800 homes and businesses were affected. In England and Wales about 1,400 homes and businesses felt the effects of the torrential downpours.
Ian Thomas, chief executive of Pontypridd-based Trivallis, which operates around 10,000 homes across South Wales, said the floods were the worst he had seen in 50 years. “I’ve never seen anything like it, it’s extraordinary. We had a month’s worth of rain in a couple of hours,” he told Inside Housing.
A total of 42 of Trivallis’ properties were affected by the floods and some families have been forced to evacuate.
“We made some preparations and we were expecting there to be problems, what we hadn’t expected was the severity,” said Mr Thomas.
“We soon got [to] the stage where we were only able to take emergency calls and we set up an emergency planning team.”
He admitted the financial impact on the group is likely to be “big” but is too early to tell the full implications.
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Citizen, which manages around 30,000 homes across the West Midlands, saw 93 of its homes affected by the storms. Of these, 59 were in Herefordshire and 34 in Worcestershire. Three residents were forced to evacuate from a property in Hereford.
In Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire, where a woman died after being swept away, two Citizen homes which had flood resilience works in the past decade were breached as water levels rose.
Elsewhere in Tenbury Wells, properties at Scotland Place saw water come into their car park. “We’ve never seen flooding here, so it was interesting that they were also affected,” said Peter Gill, director of housing at Citizen.
Citizen staff were also affected.
Three housing officers were cut off at their homes in Upton-upon-Severn, Worcestershire, but worked through the problems calling tenants to check if they needed help.
Mr Gill said the group was helped by the fact there had been an early warning. “We knew it was coming, so we got [the] message out to people. We’ve been keeping tenants updated either through personal calls or texts,” he said.
Smaller associations in Wales also felt the impact of Storm Dennis, which came just a week after Storm Ciara.
RHA, which manages 1,700 homes across Rhondda Cynon Taf, is dealing with tenants of four homes, who were forced to evacuate as water devastated their homes and belongings, while leavings their electrics condemned.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Sara Foster, director of resources at RHA. “We are working with the tenants to find suitable alternative accommodation, and some have gone into a hotel.”
Merthyr Valleys Homes, which manages 4,000 homes, saw 17 of its homes affected, with some having to cope with water breaches. “We’ve never seen it that bad, people were very scared,” said Stacy Thomas, director of homes and place at Merthyr Valleys Homes. “But the community response has been amazing.”
Today, the Welsh government has said it would make up to £10m available for flood victims – with urgent help given to families without insurance.
A Met Office ‘yellow’ warning remains in place for more heavy rain today and tomorrow.
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